Football movie classics

As the Patriots square off against the Ravens this weekend, we look back at some classic football movies that will get your head in the game. What follows is a collection of pigskin-flavored classics worth revisiting, as well as some newer selections, and a few timeless oddities meant to amuse more than inspire.

This is your typical feel-good sports movie, a bit better than most, and its tale of school desegregation will remind Bostonians of the 1970s. Based on a true story, the film centers on a Virginia high school where Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) is brought on board to replace a popular (white) football coach. The movie features a lineup of recognizable faces, including Ryan Gosling, Kate Bosworth, Donald Faison, Ethan Suplee, Wood Harris, and Hayden Panettiere. Their solid performances move the chains nicely; you’ll get some laughs and a few tear-jerkings along the way. Worry not, men, it’s OK to cry during a sports movie.—Dan ShaughnessyNext

Paramount Picture

North Dallas Forty (1979)

You want authentic pigskin? This is the uncured stuff and it wasn’t NFL-certified. Peter Gent, who wrote the best-selling novel about the computerized Cowboys of the ’70s, played for Dallas, and his themes (violence, fear, drugs, manipulation, hypocrisy) still resonate. “There’s pieces of me scattered from here to Pittsburgh,’’ observes Nick Nolte’s battered ballcatcher, whose Monday breakfast is painkillers and beer. The cast is flavored with multiple pro players, most notably John Matuszak, whose locker-room rant is riveting. “Every time I call it a game, you say it’s a business,’’ the Tooz tells an assistant coach. “Every time I say it’s a business, you call it a game.’’—John PowersNext

Justin Coit

The Band That Wouldn’t Die (2009) and Straight Outta LA (2010)

ESPN’s “30 for 30’’ DVD collection is essential viewing for movie buffs who are sports fans. Two of its most transcendent documentaries involve teams that switched cities, leaving fans in the lurch. Directed by Ice Cube (pictured), “Straight Outta L.A.’’ explains how the LA Raiders accessorized the birth of West Coast hip-hop and continue to hold an exalted place in Southern California gang culture even after their move back to Oakland. That film’s gleeky cousin is “The Band That Wouldn’t Die,’’ director Barry Levinson’s latest love letter to Baltimore and its people, some of whom kept the Colts marching band alive long after the team crept off to Indianapolis.—Janice PaigeNext

Universa

The Best of Times (1986)

A forgotten ’80s classic, “Best’’ turns the unrelenting pressures of small-town football into neurotic farce. Robin Williams, at his squirmiest, plays the guy who dropped the ball in the big game in high school; 13 years later, he still can’t get on with his life. So he talks his old quarterback (Kurt Russell) and the other players into a replay. It’s broad and predictable but it gets me every damn time it turns up on cable — especially the return of Kid Lester. Ron Shelton (“Bull Durham’’) wrote the script.—Ty Burr

From left: Robin Williams as Jack Dundee and Kurt Russell as Reno Hightower.
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New York Times

Lucas (1986)

Scrawny, nerdily bespectacled Corey Haim meets Kerri Green and becomes understandably besotted. As is the way with such relationships, she prefers a tall, darker, brawnier, more athletic man and turns to Charlie Sheen, the star of the football team. Desperate to woo the girl, the nerd joins the football team. He winds up in the hospital, but the whole town — if not Green — falls madly in love with him. Winona Ryder, as her earliest outcast, loved him first, but never mind. (If only we could have known the trouble that would come the cast’s way.) Too many football movies are based on a true story. This one is simply based on life.—Wesley MorrisNext

Universal Pictures

Everybody’s All-American (1988)

Dennis Quaid has been a double threat on the movie gridiron: a quarterback in “Any Given Sunday’’ (1999), a halfback here. Regardless of position, a back is only as good as his linemen. The best thing in “Everybody’s All-American’’ is that Quaid has John Goodman blocking for him, figuratively as well as literally. Goodman even gets his very own Dan Connolly moment early in the movie — leading to the winning touchdown in the Sugar Bowl, no less.—Mark Feeney

From left: Jessica Lange as Babs Rogers Grey and Dennis Quaid as Gavin Grey.
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Before Mark Wahlberg put on boxing gloves for the real-life drama “The Fighter,’’ he donned a Philadelphia Eagles uniform for this real-life saga about Vince Papale, a down-on-his-luck South Philly bartender plucked from obscurity in 1976 to play for the Eagles. From the opening credits of a rundown working-class neighborhood to Vince’s gutsy moves on the field, veteran cinematographer and first-time director Ericson Core overcomes underdog-to-hero clichés to give this film authentic grit. -Loren King

Wishing you had a more exciting game to watch than tonight’s ho-hum, Pats-less matchup? Thinking you might just pop in some mindlessly diverting shoot-’em-up instead? Thanks to style-addicted, logic-pshawing director Tony Scott, the two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. This Bruce Willis-Damon Wayans slice of pyrotechnic preposterousness memorably opens with a mob-threatened running back making sure his team beats the spread — by pulling out a gun on the field and blasting his way into the end zone. Just the thing for anyone who finds the extreme football-related jeopardy depicted in “Black Sunday’’ to be a little too subtle. -Tom Russo

From left: Bruce Willis as Joe Hallenback and Damon Wayans as Jimmy Dix.
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Frazer Harrison/Getty

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Warren Beatty plays an LA Rams quarterback whose Super Bowl drive is cut short by an angel (Buck Henry) prematurely sending him to heaven. The imperial James Mason reincarnates Beatty in the body of a millionaire just murdered by his wife (Dyan Cannon) and her lover (Charles Grodin). Oblivious to the madcap plotting, Beatty just wants to play ball. He buys the Rams, convinces his team “It’s me!,’’ and falls for Julie Christie. More romantic screwball fantasy than hardcore sports flick, “Heaven Can Wait’’ gently critiques jockdom. Better yet is the nostalgia-inducing, Pro Bowl lineup of ’70s stars.—Ethan Gilsdorf

There are two candidates for wackiest screen football game — or at least intentionally wackiest. “M*A*S*H’’ (pictured) offers actual NFL players — Ben Davidson, Buck Buchanan, Jack Concannon, Noland Smith, Fran Tarkenton, and that blaxploitation beau ideal, Fred Williamson — along with Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland. Let’s just say that on the plausibility scale the game ranks right up there with Gould and Sutherland as Army officers during the Korean War. “Horse Feathers’’ has the Marx brothers doing to a football game what they do to “Il Trovatore,’’ in “A Night at the Opera.’’ The term economists use is “creative destruction.’’—M.F.

You want real football on screen? That’s what Kevin Rafferty’s documentary provides. There’s lots of footage from the famous 1968 game between the traditional Ivy rivals, which ended in a tie after Harvard scored 16 points in the final 42 seconds. More than that, though, and this is what makes the film so memorable (the title tells you how the game comes out, right?), is the way it’s a meditation on aging and character. Rafferty conducted talking-head interviews with many of the players (one of them is onetime Harvard lineman Tommy Lee Jones), and to see these men four decades after their exploits on the field is to be reminded that time is the one opponent no team can defeat.—M.F.Next

Ralph Nelson/Warner Brothers Pictures

The Blind Side (2009)

Based on the true story of NFL player Michael Oher, the story centers around a caring family and their relationship with a homeless boy they’ve taken in. -J.R. From left: Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher and Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy.
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Pictured: George Clooney (center) as Dodge Connelly in a scene with the team.
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Frank Masi/Warner Brothers Pictures

We Are Marshall (2006)

After a plane crash kills most of the Marshall University football team and its coach, the team’s new coach, Jack Lengyl (Matthew McConaughey, pictured), and the few surviving players try to salvage the school’s football program. -J.R.Next

Robert Zuckerman/Warner Brothers

Any Given Sunday (1999)

The benched Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx) is called in to replace star quarterback Jack ‘Cap’ Rooney (Dennis Quaid). His great performance forces Coach Tony D’Amato (Al Pacino) to reevaluate his old ways. -J.R.

High school football means everything to this small town, and pressure mounts when star quarterback Lance Harbor (Paul Walker) is injured, leaving second string quarterback John Moxon (James Van Der Beek) in charge. -J.R.

From left: James Van Der Beek as Jonathon “Mox” Moxon and Paul Walker as Lance Harbor.
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Kharen Hill

Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998)

The film is a follow-up to the original “Air Bud,” in which Buddy the Golden Retriever and a boy named Josh play basketball together. This time around, it’s football for the two friends. -Jamie Reysen, Boston.com Correspondent

Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) is a sports agent who’s fired for expressing doubts about the way things work in his industry. Only one football player stays with him: Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.). A love story ensues between Maguire and Renée Zellweger’s character, Dorothy Boyd (not pictured). -J.R.